SteamVR Hardware and Software Survey for August 2019

Just two and three months after the launch of the Valve Index and Oculus Rift S headsets, the two devices have managed to increase their respective market shares in SteamVR. By August, the total number of the SteamVR users had been approaching the one million mark.

According to the Steam Hardware and Software Survey for August 2019, Oculus Rift S now accounts for 10.85% of SteamVR users, an improvement over the previous month’s share of 8.4%. The device was launched in late May this year. The costlier and high-end Index headset share of the market increased 3.32% in August from 1.46% in the previous month for a device that was launched towards the end of June.

Steam Hardware Survey

The cheaper Oculus Rift S headsets naturally sell much faster overall. However, both headsets are still a long way from catching up with sales figures of the first generation of headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets which command 37.76% and 35.4% of the market respectively..

The upcoming Christmas season will come with plenty of price promotions that could easily see a ramping up of sales for the two virtual reality headsets. Both of the Oculus headsets run on Facebook’s Oculus software so they do not appear in the SteamVR statistics.

The Windows VR glasses’ market share on SteamVR is however declining. Microsoft seems to have lost an interest in the device anyway. There is also the high-resolution HP Reverb headset which is ideal for simulation and enterprise applications due to its high pixel density but users will have to compromise on tracking.

Vive is losing to the new competition in terms of market share though the expected third-quarter release of the Vive Cosmos headset might turn around its fortunes.

The table below shows the active monthly user counts on SteamVR for the various top headsets. As in previous months, Valve continues to fall in the “unknown category”. The “unknowns” are also showing strong performance and have risen sharply in August over the previous month of July. It could be that the Index and Rift S also fall under the “unknowns” in the table below since neither headsets appear on the table below. Other headsets such as Primax could also fall under this category.

March 2018

July 2019

August 2019

SteamVR Share

Oculus Rift

180,000

369,000

360,000

37.76%

HTC Vive

162,000

333,000

333,000

35.4%

Windows Mixed Reality

9,000

81,000

72,000

8.24%

Vive Pro

–

18,000

18,000

2.2%

Oculus Rift DK2

9,000

–

9,000

0.64%

Unknown

–

81,000

144,000

TOTAL

360,000

882,000

936,000

On the other hand, all the other commercially available VR headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality and Vive Pro are seeing marginal drop in user numbers or are being used at the same rate in August as in the previous month.

Valve has stated that approximately 90 million Steam users are active on its platform every month. The other virtual reality platforms do not collect the user stats. Similarly, the PC VR headset manufacturers also do not share their official sales and usage statistics.

http://virtualrealitytimes.com/2019/09/05/steamvr-hardware-and-software-survey-for-august-2019/http://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/SteamVR-600×300.pnghttp://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/SteamVR-150×90.png2019-09-05T19:35:12+00:00Sam OchanjiHardwareSteamVRTechnologyVR HeadsetsJust two and three months after the launch of the Valve Index and Oculus Rift S headsets, the two devices have managed to increase their respective market shares in SteamVR. By August, the total number of the SteamVR users had been approaching the one million mark.